A San Diego State women’s volleyball player was hit in the face during a match against San Jose State University on Thursday night in a play involving redshirt senior Blaire Fleming, a transgender athlete at the center of a recent controversy that has seen several schools forfeit matches against the team.
The incident took place during the second set with the Aztecs leading 22-12.
Blaire Fleming, #3, a transgender athlete, has played three seasons at SJSU after previously playing at Coastal Carolina. (San Jose State University)
In a video shared on social media, Fleming spiked the ball, which then hit SDSU junior Keira Herron in the face.
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Herron was knocked down after the hit, and the crowd audibly gasped. She quickly got back up to her feet to resume play.
“Keira Herron has some pink in her hair and her face is starting to look like she’s matching that as obviously she took the contact,” the broadcast announcer said in the video.
SJSU would go on to lose the match in straight sets as their record dropped to 9-2.
The incident comes amid controversy surrounding the school’s program. Four schools have forfeited matches against San Jose State, including Boise State, Southern Utah, Wyoming and Utah State, this season.
Blaire Fleming, #3, a redshirt senior at San Jose State University, plays as an outside and right-side hitter on the women’s volleyball team. (San Jose State University)
The forfeitures follow Brooke Slusser, Fleming’s teammate, who just last month joined former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines and several other female athletes in suing the NCAA over its policies regarding transgender athletes that they claim compromise the fairness and integrity of women’s competitive sports while also putting women at risk.
According to the complaint, Slusser claimed she was not aware that Fleming was transgender despite sharing rooms together on team trips. Slusser also expressed safety concerns for opponents playing against Fleming.
“Brooke estimates that Fleming’s spikes were traveling upward of 80 mph, which was faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball,” Slusser’s complaint said, via the Cowboy State Daily. “The girls were doing everything they could to dodge Fleming’s spikes but still could not fully protect themselves.”
A volleyball net is set during the Division III Women’s Volleyball Championship held at the U.S. Cellular Center on Nov. 23, 2019 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Jack Dempsey/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
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“One thing that’s important in this case is really the physical safety issues in volleyball,” Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock, told OutKick. “And that’s what they’re facing in practice every day. So, it’s just a crazy, misguided policy that steals athletic dreams from women and gives them to men, and, at the same time, puts women’s health and safety in danger.”
A spokesperson from San Jose State University told Fox News Digital on Thursday that no upcoming opponents have informed the team of plans to forfeit upcoming matches.
“We have no notifications of cancelations at this time. We are scheduled to play home games tonight against San Diego State and Saturday against UNLV,” the spokesperson said.
The team has 13 regular season games remaining, including a rematch with San Diego State. The schedule also includes second matches against three of the four teams that have already forfeited their first match against the Spartans.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
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